Nikon D800 what cf card to buy?

[teigas]

I need a new card,have earlier used Sandisk SD cards 95mb from my old camera. I need an extra card and has heard that the CF cards are better for the D800. So i was wondering what brand and what speed to buy? Any suggestions? Will the fastest one be right? Or will not the camera be able to write that fast to the card any way?

I see Lexar have one called 1000x and also have released one thats called 1066x ? Whats the difference?

I also see that a brand called transcend have some cards? Never heard of this brand, are cheaper than lexar and sandisk.

Sandisk have SanDisk CF Extreme Pro 16 GB 160MB/s and also seems to have relased a sd card that has SanDisk SDHC Ext PRO 32GB UHS-II 280 mbs? But i am not sure if the D800 supports UHS 2?


So any personal refrences or recomandations? What to buy?

[lukaswerth]

I need a new card,have earlier used Sandisk SD cards 95mb from my old camera. I need an extra card and has heard that the CF cards are better for the D800. So i was wondering what brand and what speed to buy? Any suggestions? Will the fastest one be right? Or will not the camera be able to write that fast to the card any way?

I see Lexar have one called 1000x and also have released one thats called 1066x ? Whats the difference?

I also see that a brand called transcend have some cards? Never heard of this brand, are cheaper than lexar and sandisk.

Sandisk have SanDisk CF Extreme Pro 16 GB 160MB/s and also seems to have relased a sd card that has SanDisk SDHC Ext PRO 32GB UHS-II 280 mbs? But i am not sure if the D800 supports UHS 2?


So any personal refrences or recomandations? What to buy?

I own a d800e, and I haven't heard yet that CF cards would be better than SD cards. I remember faintly having read somewhere that CF cards are written on slightly faster, but if this is true and not only an urban rumour, then the difference is really slight. The d800 has a slot for eac sort of card, I use them both, and my advice is: buy the fastest and the largest you can afford. Lossless compressed raw files are about 45 MB, so cards do fill up (you might sometimes also want to have a jpeg along with the raw file), and when you take pictures with life view, the camera takes with a slow card 20-30 seconds to write the file on the card, with a fast card about 1 second.

Lukas

[ajohnw]

CF cards can be quicker than sd but some sd's are much quicker than others for the same reason. The number of serial lines that can be written at the same time. Problem though all depends on if the camera can actually use them and as far as I know manufacturers don't mention what their side does and all sd and cf cards will downgrade to suit what the drive side can deliver. From memory there is some information on this aspect on the wiki somewhere.

I've used Transcend PC ram. It's good stuff that I believe they actually make rather than just rebrand. Lexar???????????????

John
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[Black Pearl]

Direct from Nikon: https://nikoneurope-en.custhelp.com/...-nikon-cameras

D810 (CF)
Make Model GB
SanDisk Ultra - SDCFHG - 4 8 16 - - - -
Ultra - SDCFHS - 4 8 16 - - - -
Ultra II - SDCFH 2 4 8 - - - - -
Extreme III - SDCFX3 2 4 8 16 - - - -
Extreme IV - SDCFX4 2 4 8 16 - - - -
Extreme - SDCFX - - 8 16 32 64 - -
Extreme - SDCFXS - - 8 16 32 64 128 -
Extreme Pro - SDCFXP - - - 16 32 64 128 -
Extreme Pro - SDCFXPS - - - 16 32 64 128 256
Lexar Media Platinum II 60 x - 4 - - - - - -
Platinum II 80 x 2 4 8 16 - - - -
Platinum II 200 x - 4 8 16 - - - -
Professional 80 x 2 4 - - - - - -
Professional 133 x 2 4 8 - - - - -
Professional 233 x 2 4 8 - - - - -
Professional UDMA 300 x 2 4 8 16 - - - -
Professional UDMA 400 x - - 8 16 32 64 128 -
Professional UDMA 600 x - - 8 16 32 - - -
Professional UDMA 800 x - - 8 16 32 64 128 -
Professional UDMA 1000 x - - - 16 32 - 128 256
Professional UDMA 1066 x - - - 16 32 64 128 256


D810 (SD)
Make Model GB
SanDisk - 2 41 - 81 - 161 - 321 - 642 1282
Lexar Media - 2 41 - 81 - 161 - 321 - - -
Platinum II - - - 81 - 161 - 321 - 642 -
Professional - - - 81 - 161 - 321 - 642 1282 2562
Full-HD Video - 41 - 81 - 161 - - - - - -
Toshiba - - 41 - 81 - 161 - 321 - 642 -
Panasonic - 2 41 61 81 121 161 241 321 482 642 -

1 SDHC - compliant. If the memory card will be used with a card reader or similar device, check that the device supports SDHC. The camera supports UHS-1
2 SDXC - compliant. If the memory card will be used with a card reader or similar device, check that the device supports SDXC. The camera supports UHS-1
3 'WA' (Write Acceleration Technology)

[Black Pearl]

Be very careful with other cards - I am a member of a very large FB group (over 15k members) and there are problems cropping up with some of the cheaper brands and older cards with the camera simply refusing to format them.

All I would say is if you have spend thousands and thousands of £/$ then why would you possibly try to save a few more by getting anything other than the very best/fastest card you can lay your hands on.

[NorthernFocus]

There have been problems reported with SD cards that aren't on the Nikon list of tested/approved cards. Formating problems and write problems as I recall. CF are theoretically faster though many SD cards nowadays are fast enough to render it a moot point as the camera becomes the choke point.

First thing we all need to come to terms with is what we actually need. If one is shooting landscape, macro, etc, where long continuous bursts are not used, then write speed to the card is not important. Money may be better spent paying for volume rather than speed. In the US right now 32GB,45mb/s SD cards can be had for well under $50US. The 160mb/s variety are four or five times as much.

I shoot a lot of burst shooting and have never filled the buffer on the D800. So my decision is to spend on volume and compromise on the speed. Until recently the fastest cards I was using were 60mb/s. Just recently costs have come down and I bought a couple of 32GB, 120mb/s CF cards. I shoot with CF as the primary card and SD as overflow when shooting action type stuff. For landscape etc I typically just put the SD card in and leave the CF slot empty. That simply because my computer has a slot to accept SD directly without an adapter. I currently use exclusively Sandisk in the D800. In the past I have used Lexar as well.

[Black Pearl]

The only thing I would add is the more expensive cards tend to have better control circuits and error mapping so while you may not need the fastest it is still worth spending a little more on a 'good' card over a cheaper option.

[rpcrowe]

I have found that UDMA CF Cards offer faster downloads (given that you use a UDMA capable reader) than non UDMA cards. This is true even when your camera isn't UDMA capable.

Of course, the download speed is only critical if you have large numbers of images to download...

[Mark von Kanel]

I would be careful about the buy big advice, smaller cards changed more often give more security against card failure and subsequent work loss imagine shooting that vital event only to have you card fail or your camera stolen. also due to the way that cards store the data i beleive that if you constantly only part fill a large card befor re formatting for a new shoot, it will eventually slow the card down.

[ajohnw]

I'm away from home so can't look at a manual but I would expect to see a card specification mentioned and not in mb/sec either.

This page for instance shows the CF types

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompactFlash

It would take a lot of reading to be sure but it looks like CF unlike SD cards have not retained backwards compatibility as they have evolved.

A spec is a spec and sets the timing requirements the camera side has to meet as well as max read write speeds. Fitting a card which is faster than that supported by the camera doesn't have to give any gain at all. If it reliably did then the manufacturers could have raised their spec level. People seem to like seeing mb/sec ratings rather than actual spec numbers but these should be available even in ebay listings.

John
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[Black Pearl]

I would be careful about the buy big advice, smaller cards changed more often give more security against card failure and subsequent work loss imagine shooting that vital event only to have you card fail or your camera stolen. also due to the way that cards store the data i beleive that if you constantly only part fill a large card befor re formatting for a new shoot, it will eventually slow the card down.

Cards don't slow down the more you use them, they simply don't work that way.

As to buying smaller cards then that's fine with most cameras but you need to remember the D810 isn't 'most cameras' and can fire out gigantic 73Mb files - that will fill up your card pretty darn quickly.

[NorthernFocus]

I would be careful about the buy big advice, smaller cards changed more often give more security against card failure and subsequent work....

I agree with that strategy. And the definition of "big" is camera/format specific. Shooting RAW with a D800, a 32G card holds something over 400 images(I'm always puzzled that the math doesn't work out vs actual capacity). For what I often shoot, that's not a lot. I've somewhat arbitrarily settled on 32G cards for D800 and 16G for D4 and D7100. From a practical standpoint for my particular needs that seems to be a good balance between reasonable capacity, image security, and cost. There's a balance we each have to determine for our particular circumstances.

[benm]

Shooting RAW with a D800, a 32G card holds something over 400 images(I'm always puzzled that the math doesn't work out vs actual capacity).

Actually, the math does work. A 32G card holds 32,000,000,000 bytes (not 32 gigabytes). An uncompressed 14-bit RAW is 74.4MB.
32,000,000,000 bytes / 74,400,000 bytes = 430 photos.

[ajohnw]

Actually, the math does work. A 32G card holds 32,000,000,000 bytes (not 32 gigabytes). An uncompressed 14-bit RAW is 74.4MB.
32,000,000,000 bytes / 74,400,000 bytes = 430 photos.

Only problem there is that mB,gB are usually quoted just like 1kB which is 1024 bytes not 1000 so the difference is in all probability down to formatted space as against actual space just like disk drives.

Big B little b. Sometimes used to differentiate between bytes and bits. Serial devices are usually quoted in bits per sec but may actually be capable of writing or reading several bits at the same time which makes the numbers look higher - if the hardware using it can actually write more that 1 bit at a time.


John
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[Black Pearl]

Isn't the multiple of 1024 bytes actually a Gigibyte GiB - whereas a Gigabyte is a multiplier of 1000 bytes GB?

[teigas]

Thanks for all the feedback went with a Sandisk 32gb Extreme pro 160mb/s. Was lookin into the LExar 1000x but only one or two overpriced shops in Norway did offer them. As people above said, I dont like to have one really large card filled with all my pictures, if it where to fail. Thanks for all the help and advice.

[Mark von Kanel]

Cards don't slow down the more you use them, they simply don't work that way.

As to buying smaller cards then that's fine with most cameras but you need to remember the D810 isn't 'most cameras' and can fire out gigantic 73Mb files - that will fill up your card pretty darn quickly.

it was my understanding that memory cards a divided up into little segments that fill up from the beginning filling the last slot right at the end, if you dont fill the card all the time then the slots at the front get used more often, these slots wit lots of use start to fail but they dont fail in order, as individual slots fail then the card has to search for the next available slot and that slows them down. According to toshiba who invented the tech each segment wil be caperbal of 10000 erasures and re write so if the card isnt filled then the argument does hold.

im not a card manufacturer but it seems logical to me unfortunately i cant find the article relating to this.

eeerrrrmmm i own a d800 and have 32gb cards, i only ever fill them when shooting events but even then i use smaller for data security, i find that if i use 8gb cards i get120 raw images per card or there abouts its more than enough risk per card, and lets face it who goes out on a shoot as an amateur and regularly shoots more?

im sorry but in this case big isnt beautiful

[ajohnw]

Isn't the multiple of 1024 bytes actually a Gigibyte GiB - whereas a Gigabyte is a multiplier of 1000 bytes GB?

It's confusing Robin but memory and storage are as far as I am aware all binary related. In other word 2 to some power. The SI people seem to have confused things by stating a GB is a decimal gigabyte at some point so it now seems gb in computer style storage is now a gibibyte or gigabyte. 1024^3 = my calculator wont work.

See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte

These SI people are a pain. Part way through my educations they decided centimetres and decimetres and a number of other things don't exist - linear measure in this range can only be expressed in millimetres or meters.

Seeing a comment about how things are stored - the cards carry out wear levelling and error correction in much the same way as flash drives do. Space grained from deleted items will not be over written again until they have to be - when there is no unused space left. Once that route has been used up double deleted space wont be used until no one time used space is available and so on.

Me - I will continue to see what grade of card manufactures recommend and use that. Others no doubt will carry on using meaningless numbers.

John
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[NorthernFocus]

...i own a d800 and have 32gb cards, i only ever fill them when shooting events but even then i use smaller for data security, i find that if i use 8gb cards i get120 raw images per card or there abouts its more than enough risk per card, and lets face it who goes out on a shoot as an amateur and regularly shoots more?...

Oooh, oooh. I know the answer to that. I do

[Black Pearl]

I found a similar link John - I had always assumed it was a 1024 derivative but recalled reading about the decimal GB somewhere in the past.

Its not really relevant in the grand scheme of things but does niggle away.

Lexar quote:

Actual usable memory capacity may vary. 1GB equals 1 billion bytes.

Verbatim do the same thing:

Available capacity depends not only on the disk drive model, but also on how the operating system reports capacity figures. Some disk capacity is used for pre-loaded software, formatting and other functions, and therefore is not available for data storage. For example, a “320GB” model will not show as 320,000,000,000 bytes available.
· 1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes
· 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes
· 1 TB = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes

Its enough to drive you nuts :roll eyes: